Oszmiana

The first documented reference to the Jewish community in Oszmiana dates to 1765. Over the first half of the 19th century, the Jews of Oszmiana suffered a string of disasters: The town was partly destroyed during Napoleon's retreat from Russia; in 1831, the Cossacks sent to suppress the Polish uprising committed a pogrom against the local Jews, looting their property; in 1837, Oszmiana was devastated by a fire. These tribulations were followed by economic recovery from the mid-19th century onward, with Jewish entrepreneurs playing the leading role in this process. Jews opened numerous flourmills, tanneries, leather factories, distilleries, and a brewery in the town. In the 1880s, Leib Strugach established a yeast factory in Oszmiana; by the end of the 19th century, he had become one of the richest men in Belarus. In 1897, there were 3,803 Jews in Oszmiana, or 52.7 percent of the total population. In the 1880s, one of the first circles of Hovevei Zion emerged in Oszmiana. One of the first cells of the social-democrat Bund party was established in Oszmiana in the late 19th century. The Polish-Soviet War of 1919-20 entailed great suffering for the Jews –thus, when the Poles occupied the town in October 1920, they accused the Jews of collaborating with the Russian communists and killed some of them. In 1920 Oszmiana and the area was incorporated into Polish republic. During iterwar period a cell of the Hehalutz movement was established, and was followed by cells of the General Zionists and Hashomer Hatzair parties, and of the religious Hehalutz Hamizrahi and the right-wing Beitar. A Polish state school that was opened in the town in the early 1920s attracted many Jewish students, but the majority of Jews preferred Jewish educational institutions, including the Hebrew schools of the Tarbut and Yavneh networks, and the Yiddish school of the Tsisho network. In September 1939, World War II broke out, and Oszmiana was occupied by the Soviets. The new authorities banned all non-communist parties and movements, Zionist and non-Zionist alike. However, the Sovietized Yiddish school remained open to Jewish students. Many Jews held important posts – thus, Zalman Yudovich was the head of the Oszmiana district administration. The Jewish population of the town swelled, largely due to the influx of Jewish refugees from the German-occupied Polish territories. On June 22, 1941, the Soviet-German war began. On June 25, 1941, Oszmiana was occupied by the Wehrmacht. In early July 1941, probably on July 3-4, the SS rounded up and shot about 40 people, both Jews and non-Jews, who were accused of having collaborated with the Soviet authorities. On July 26, 1941, a Teilkommando of Einsatzkommando 9 rounded up almost all male Jews aged between 17 and 65, and shot them in the Lugovshchina forest (near the hamlet of Barteli). According to the Einsatzgruppen report, 527 people were killed. In early October 1941, a ghetto was established in Oszmiana. Paradoxically, the population of the Oszmiana Ghetto actually increased during its initial period – e.g., about 200 Jews from Lithuania, who regarded Oszmiana as a calmer place, settled here, and the Jewish council managed to "legalize" them. Jews from nearby towns – such as Żuprany, Baruny, Holszany, Michaliszki, Soly, and Świr – were resettled to Oszmiana by the Nazis in late 1941-early 1942. They were followed by 800 Jews from Wołożyn in May 1942, and by the Jews of Smorgonie, Krewo, and Holszany in the fall of 1942. The population of the Oszmiana Ghetto rose to about 4,000 people. At the same time, some of its inmates were sent to various labor camps in Lithuania. On October 23, 1942, on the orders of the SiPo (the German Security Police), and with the participation of the Jewish police from Vilna, 406 elderly people were rounded up and shot near the village of Tolminovo, at the former Ogleiba estate, west of Oszmiana. In late March-early April 1943, the Oszmiana Ghetto was liquidated. Its able-bodied inmates were moved to the Vilna Ghetto. The remainder, 713 people, were killed in Ponary, near Vilna. Oszmiana was liberated by the Red Army on July 7, 1944.